Antineutrino Spectroscopy with Large Water Čerenkov Detectors

作者：J. F. Beacom, M. R. Vagins · 发表于：Physical Review Letters · 年份：2004 · DOI：10.1103/physrevlett.93.171101 · 被引用次数：442 · 研究领域：Neutrino Physics Research、Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena、Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena

We propose modifying large water \ifmmode \check{C}\else \v{C}\fi{}erenkov detectors by the addition of 0.2% gadolinium trichloride, which is highly soluble, newly inexpensive, and transparent in solution. Since Gd has an enormous cross section for radiative neutron capture, with $\ensuremath{\sum}_{}^{}{E}_{\ensuremath{\gamma}}=8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}$, this would make neutrons visible for the first time in such detectors, allowing antineutrino tagging by the coincidence detection reaction ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{e}+p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}+n$ (similarly for ${\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$). Taking Super-Kamiokande as a working example, dramatic consequences for reactor neutrino measurements, first observation of the diffuse supernova neutrino background, galactic supernova detection, and other topics are discussed.